And then there were 10

Just finished a 70 mile ride from Poplarville LA to Ocean Springs, LA.  Last day in Louisiana as tomorrow we cross into Alabama.

We have 10 day left of riding (plus one rest day).  Tomorrow we stop in Dauphin Island, AL and we are scheduled to stay in a RV park.  Supposed to be a great little island that has some bars and good places to eat.  We have sorely missed those kinds of treats.

Again nothing to take pictures of (sorry about that).  It was a nice ride through a forest.  But is you have seen once forest - you have seen them all.

We had a lunch at 53 miles into the ride in a Baptist Church Community Hall.  The women of the church do this every year for the riders.  They don't charge for the meal but we all left a donation.  Really nice of them.

Tonight we are staying in a Super 8 hotel.  I badmouthed it last night but this one was recently remodeled and it is quite nice.  Even the towels are big and nice.  I again took a private room as last night the snoring in the Safe House was unbearable.

I have been plagued with allergies as the pollen count is quite high.  Add to that the concrete dust from the floor of the safe house and I was coughing all night.  Hopefully I pissed off some of the snorers.

Still having problems with my bike.  The latest issue is that I blew out my bottom bracket.  This is the part of the bike that the pedals and cranks go though.  At first we thought it was a creak in the pedals so we put on some lubrication.  At the night sag stop I told the mechanic that my seat must be making the creaking noise so we lubed that as well. 

By the end of the ride the squeak had turned in to a grinding noise - so the only thing left was to check the bottom bracket.  Coach (the mechanic) opened up the bottom bracket and one of the bearings was totally ground down to silver dust.

The biggest problem with bottom brackets is there is no standard and thousands of configurations.  Thought for sure my ride was over.  But luckily one of the riders (Ernie) was actually carrying a new bottom bracket that fit my bike. 

I was saved.  No more squeals or creaks.

I was riding today and all of a sudden I started hearing noises again and though my ride was finished.  Went on for a couple of minutes until I figured out it was a duck that was honking in a pond on the side of the road.  So much for my bike diagnostic skills.

But all in all the last three days of riding have been great.  Weather A+, Roads A+, Scenery B-, and wind C to C- (another headwind today).  It's why we came - albeit late in the ride.

Tomorrow is our longest ride left in the tour (only 10 riding days left).  It is an 84 miler to Dauphin Island and as I mentioned our last rest day. 

Hopefully I can get some good pictures.